On the whole, Nottingham Forest’s first outing in the Championship this season was a distinctly average affair.
A bright opening quarter or so of the game proved to be a false dawn as West Brom won at what would you could describe as a canter.
While there were some disappointing performances from Sabri Lamouchi’s side, one player that did stand out was Tiago Silva on his competitive debut in English football.
He looked to be the one player with a creative spark, the man that could have unlocked the door to creating something for Lewis Grabban. I liked him.
Silva is the sort of player that will get kicked from pillar to post, he’ll get knocked about a bit rather like Joao Carvalho did at times last season, but you have to say, he doesn’t seem to care.
The Portuguese just gets up and carries on like nothing has happened and in truth, I was a tad surprised to see the head coach take him off because I thought he was one of the brighter sparks.
It strikes me as if he’s not the sort of player that would drift out of a game if he keeps getting kicked, and the more established he becomes in the side, you’d imagine he’d become a target.
Joe Lolley had a poor game was deservedly pulled off, though Silva's departure did seem a surprise to me.
As he settles into life in England and gets to grips with the Championship, I think he has the ability to be quite an astute signing by Forest, though as we know with players that are not familiar with this level, only time will tell how quickly he can adapt.
Garry Birtles was in conversation with Barry Cooper this week
